The Bombay High Court on Friday asked the Union government to decide quickly on its notification prohibiting export of onions and said, “It will be in the interest of justice if export of pending consignments of onion with valid shipping bills are allowed.”
A Division Bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Abhay Ahuja was hearing a petition filed by Horticulture Produce Exporters Association and others through advocate Sujay Kantawalla.
They have contended that though their bills were prior to issuance of notification dated September 14, 2020 which prohibited export of onions, they were not being permitted to export.
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The petition stated, “The containers were illegally kept on hold by the customs authorities, as they were illegally acting upon some information that they had received at around 10 a.m. purportedly informing them some policy changes regarding onion exports were to happen, however no policy decision or notification came up.”
Senior advocate Pradeep Jetly appearing for Union of India said, “Those consignments of onions which were loaded prior to issuance of the said notification will be allowed to be exported.”
The court said, “It appears that the consignments of the petitioners were with the customs authority prior to issuance of the impugned notification. While we appreciate the decision taken by the authorities to mitigate the hardship of those exporters where consignments were already loaded for export, we believe that it would be in the interest of justice if the same benefit is extended to the goods of the petitioners.”
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The Bench added that “We expect a decision to be taken expeditiously as admittedly the goods are perishable.”
The judges adjourned the matter for September 29.